Today is Presidents’ Day, which began as an amalgamation of George Washington’s birthday and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, but now is nobody’s birthday but just honors our chief executives. So let’s take a pause from the current presidential campaign to discuss the institution itself.

Is it wise to have the same person be head of state and the head of the executive branch?

Most democracies today have a Prime Minister as chief executive, who is the head of the party that has the majority in the legislature. Is that better than our elected Presidents? If not, why are Prime Ministers more common in modern governments?